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23andMe to merge with VG Acquisition Corp. to become publicly-traded company

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Re: 23andMe to merge with VG Acquisition Corp. to become publicly-traded company

#51

Post by tachyonbeam »

lordnacho wrote: post #36
thedudeabides5 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's pretty much the idea. Back in markets, we would of called it 'regulatory arbitrage.'

Why doesn't every IPO happen this way? Once you want to go public, you make a SPAC, get that approved, then have it buy your business?

Right now it kind of seems like every IPO does happen this way. There's kind of a SPAC mania going on. I can name at least 5 companies that are going public through SPACs, and two more that are rumored to be doing the same soon (Virgin Orbit and Lucid Motors).

Re: 23andMe to merge with VG Acquisition Corp. to become publicly-traded company

#52

Post by rexbee »

_Understated_ wrote: post #41
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #25

In a letter to customers, CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki said, "We're about to cash out of this bitch, and go kick it on a South Pacific island. Just fair warning that the database is going to have new owners soon, who will be keen to sell access to your most-intimate biological details to anyone with an idea on how to make money on it, and a checkbook."

Did she honestly say this? Do you have a link? If this is true then, wow... just wow! Edit: given that Zuck took the piss out of his customers many years ago [0] as a teenager and is now a billionaire then I guess anything's possible. [0] - https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a19490586/mark-zucker...

She did not say that

Re: 23andMe to merge with VG Acquisition Corp. to become publicly-traded company

#53

Post by lotsofpulp »

ffggvv wrote: post #35
engineer_22 wrote: post #10

Why would a company go through a SPAC instead of an IPO? Does the SPAC merger constitute a hedge against uncertainty in an IPO? What I mean is, 23andMe gets cash NOW and the SPAC gets the company at a discount but accepts the risk the IPO might not meet its goals? Could someone please explain the strategy?

it’s because it doesn’t have the same regulation or due diligence. you can scam retail investors.

Retail investors have no business investing in an SPAC. If you’re not doing your due diligence, you should stick to VOO. There’s plenty of options for people who don’t want to take risks.

Re: 23andMe to merge with VG Acquisition Corp. to become publicly-traded company

#54

Post by buescher »

anthuswilliams wrote: post #43
lordnacho wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why doesn't every IPO happen this way? Once you want to go public, you make a SPAC, get that approved, then have it buy your business?

The sponsors of the SPAC set aside for themselves a big chunk of the shares of the newly combined entity. So in general, the company gets a worse price than it would if it had gone public via an IPO.

So if the principals involved in a startup set up their own SPAC to take the company public, they could screw minority shareholders in the original company like, say, employees?

Re: 23andMe to merge with VG Acquisition Corp. to become publicly-traded company

#55

Post by breck »

runako wrote: post #48

Here's a thread of basic diligence on the company: https://twitter.com/BluthCapital/status/1357469113422069761?... Possibly of interest if you're considering investing.

Thanks! It does explain why the stock price is low.

I do have some problems with 23andme (and I've sent Anne a few emails about things over the years about a few simple things that they still haven't corrected, which is a bit worrisome), but that being said, who else comes close to doing what they do?

I invested a lot in FitBit (lost a lot), but also Garmin and AAPL and MSFT (I just liked the wearable sector).

Similarly, I'd like to do a similar play in consumer genomics. Just bought some 23andMe (via the SPAC, not sure if I did it right), but what else is out there? I liked uBiome but not sure what is happening there. Ancestry.com I should probably look into, what else? Oxford Nanopore would be great (are they public?).

23andme is great because of the network effects. If someone comes out with better sequencing tech, they still have a huge distribution problem, which 23andme has solved (if they don't blow the trust of their users).

Anyway, I'm long.

Re: 23andMe to merge with VG Acquisition Corp. to become publicly-traded company

#56

Post by bushbaba »

mdorazio wrote: post #15
echelon wrote: post #2

Is there a way to predict which SPACs will merge with which startups? It seems like if you had knowledge of this and you could predict a highly profitable business merging with a SPAC, you could get in at the ground floor for incredible and almost immediate share price growth. I wouldn't invest in 23andMe, but I would invest in Stripe. Which SPAC will it merge with?

Check the SPAC subreddit and look at blogs that actually do analysis on the SPAC teams themselves. The best indicator is usually who runs the SPAC and their connections in SV + focus industry. But ultimately, you can't reliably predict it. You can do what I do and shotgun investment in several promising SPACs and hope that one hits in a reasonable amount of time (I'm 1/4 so far this year).

You can also buy spac ETFs. E.g. SPCX and SPAK

Re: 23andMe to merge with VG Acquisition Corp. to become publicly-traded company

#57

Post by lordnacho »

tachyonbeam wrote: post #51
lordnacho wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why doesn't every IPO happen this way? Once you want to go public, you make a SPAC, get that approved, then have it buy your business?

Right now it kind of seems like every IPO does happen this way. There's kind of a SPAC mania going on. I can name at least 5 companies that are going public through SPACs, and two more that are rumored to be doing the same soon (Virgin Orbit and Lucid Motors).

What I mean is why don't traditional businesses IPO in this way? If it's a pain to do due dilly with a real business, why isn't this a back door?

Re: 23andMe to merge with VG Acquisition Corp. to become publicly-traded company

#58

Post by yreg »

ffggvv wrote: post #35
engineer_22 wrote: post #10

Why would a company go through a SPAC instead of an IPO? Does the SPAC merger constitute a hedge against uncertainty in an IPO? What I mean is, 23andMe gets cash NOW and the SPAC gets the company at a discount but accepts the risk the IPO might not meet its goals? Could someone please explain the strategy?

it’s because it doesn’t have the same regulation or due diligence. you can scam retail investors.

Your comment reads as if you suggested that would be the only/main reason. Ergo "all spacs are scams"?

That's very much not true.

Re: 23andMe to merge with VG Acquisition Corp. to become publicly-traded company

#59

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

_Understated_ wrote: post #41
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #25

In a letter to customers, CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki said, "We're about to cash out of this bitch, and go kick it on a South Pacific island. Just fair warning that the database is going to have new owners soon, who will be keen to sell access to your most-intimate biological details to anyone with an idea on how to make money on it, and a checkbook."

Did she honestly say this? Do you have a link? If this is true then, wow... just wow! Edit: given that Zuck took the piss out of his customers many years ago [0] as a teenager and is now a billionaire then I guess anything's possible. [0] - https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a19490586/mark-zucker...

I'm... how you say?... paraphrasing.

Re: 23andMe to merge with VG Acquisition Corp. to become publicly-traded company

#60

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

breck wrote: post #44
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #25

In a letter to customers, CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki said, "We're about to cash out of this bitch, and go kick it on a South Pacific island. Just fair warning that the database is going to have new owners soon, who will be keen to sell access to your most-intimate biological details to anyone with an idea on how to make money on it, and a checkbook."

Funny, I have her 2006 letter and there seems to be some inconsistencies: "As you all know, I'm rich enough from Google that I could just go kick it on a South Pacific Island. Instead though, I'm going to spend the next 15 years of my life grinding, taking flak of the press and internet trolls, so that I can set the record for helping the most people in the world learn there ancestry and pioneer mass genetic testing…

Fair enough, but however altruistically you might hold her motives, it doesn't change the fact that the new owners will surely be looking to maximize their returns through new and creative ways of using pre-existing assets. I've watched this movie many, many times over the past couple of decades.
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